NYC Family Organizes Donor Drive For Cancer-Stricken Nanny
NEW YORK (CBS 2) -- Anyone who has children knows how much a nanny can become a member of the family, but what happens when that nanny becomes sick?
One Upper West Side family is doing whatever they can to take care of one of their own, reports CBS 2's Magee Hickey.
"I don't have words to say what she has done for me," nanny Lola Barclay said.
For three years, Barclay had lovingly taken care of Jack and Katelyn Fogel, until she became sick with an aggressive form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
Mother Meredith Fogel is now trying to return that love.
"Lola's is a huge part of our family. She's critical to the functioning of our household, to the development and the care of our children. She's everything to us," Meredith said. "She's Lola Fogel, and she'll always be Lola Fogel."
Meredith, who works full-time as a lawyer for Saks Fifth Avenue, has been taking Lola to her doctors at Mount Sinai Medical Center for five rounds of chemotherapy, which isn't working.
Lola's cancer, though, is still not in remission, so Meredith has set up a website and organized bone marrow drives – the first at the Fogels' synagogue – looking for a match, Lola's best chance for survival.
"My sister had a different form of blood cancer 14 years ago and had a bone marrow transplant from my other sister," Meredith said. "I understand what it is that Lola has, and how important it is to find a match for her."
One of the challenges that Lola is facing si that there are relatively few African Americans on the national bone marrow registry.
The second bone marrow drive is scheduled for Sunday at Lola's church, Mount Olive Pentacostal, in East Flatbush. The extended Fogel family is hoping for a huge turnout.
"She's from Jamaica, so we're hoping that at the drive for Lola on Sunday, there will be people that come join from Jamaica, from other Caribbean countries, and people that are generally more diverse," Linda Caltabiano, of the New York Blood Center, said.
"I love those kids with my heart; the parents know it," Lola said. "Whatever you put in, you always get it back. May God bless her."
For more information about Sunday's bone marrow drive, click here.
